By Arianna Huffington
Every time one of these stories comes up, like, say, Michael
Jackson, when it's finally over I think, what a relief, now
we can get back to real news. But we never do.
I was thinking a lot over the weekend about the news and
about how the news becomes the news, and then I read Jay Rosen's
brilliant take on the Downing Street Memo coverage [to read
Jay Rosen's whole piece go to huffingtonpost.com]. Rosen elaborates
on Josh Marshall's assertion that "news stories have
a 24-hour audition on the news stage, and if they don't catch
fire in that 24 hours, there's no second chance." Rosen's
theory is that blogs have become the news cycle's appeals
court, and that the Downing Street Memo story is still alive
because it won on appeal. And thank God.
But, unlike a traditional court, the Blog Circuit Court
of Appeals lacks an enforcement arm. The only way its decisions
can be enforced is by constant reiteration of the decision.
Which brings me back to this weekend. If you were to get
your news only from television, you'd think the top issue
facing our country right now is an 18-year-old girl named
Natalee who went missing in Aruba. Every time one of these
stories comes up, like, say, Michael Jackson, when it's finally
over I think, what a relief, now we can get back to real news.
But we never do. When one of these big league non-stories
ends, they just call up a new one from the minors É
and off they go with another round of breathless reporting.
Anything to not have to actually report actual news.
Here are the number of news segments that mention these
stories (from a search of the main news networks' transcripts
from May 1-June 20):
- ABC News: "Downing Street Memo": 0 segments;
"Natalee Holloway": 42 segments; "Michael
Jackson": 121 segments.
- CBS News: "Downing Street Memo": 0 segments;
"Natalee Holloway": 70 segments; "Michael
Jackson": 235 segments.
- NBC News: "Downing Street Memo": 6 segments;
"Natalee Holloway": 62 segments; "Michael
Jackson": 109 segments.
- CNN: "Downing Street Memo": 30 segments; "Natalee
Holloway": 294 segments; "Michael Jackson":
633 segments.
- Fox News: "Downing Street Memo": 10 segments;
"Natalee Holloway": 148 segments; Michael Jackson":
286 segments.
- MSNBC: "Downing Street Memo": 10 segments;
"Natalee Holloway": 30 segments; "Michael
Jackson": 106 segments.
When defending these choices, news execs inevitably fall
back on the old "we're just giving the people what they
want." But are they? Fox News averages around two and
a quarter million viewers in primetime; CNN hovers just under
a million; MSNBC pulls in a quarter million. We have 280 million
people in the country. That means that tens of millions of
people actually don't want what they're being given -- and
that there are huge slices of audience a real news operation
could go after.
The mainstream media regularly confuse interesting with
important. What's more, they don't even do the former very
well, and they largely ignore the latter.
One wonders what happens to all those enterprising young
broadcast journalists being pumped out by J-schools across
the country. I speak to them occasionally, and they all seem
to be truly dedicated to reporting the news. So what happens
to them between grad school and the moment they do their 50th
windswept, beachfront update on Natalee Holloway? Surely no
one actually aspires to spend their life describing the pre-verdict
scene outside the Santa Maria courthouse or filling up airtime
with a feature on the party scene in Aruba. This can't be
what they wanted to do with their lives, can it?
In any case, here's my suggestion: Go cold turkey. Just
say no. Every time you see or hear the word "Aruba"
or "Holloway" on the screen in the next few weeks,
turn off the TV, or change the channel. I've been trying it
-- and it's not easy (I've found the Cartoon Network is a
pretty safe -- if nerve-rattling -- escape valve).
This is not to minimize the tragic elements of Natalee Holloway's
disappearance. It is tragic -- but it's not news in the way
the Downing Street Memo is news. Or multiple deaths in Iraq
are news. The deaths of 19 year-old Lance Cpl. Adam J. Crumpler,
26-year-old Lance Cpl. Erik R. Heldt and 36-year-old Capt.
John W. Maloney were confirmed by the Pentagon in the last
two days, but you won't hear their names repeated on Fox or
CNN.
But be warned: Even if you try really hard to go cold turkey,
the Scandalous Non-News Story of the Day still has a way of
seeping into your consciousness. It's some kind of tabloid
osmosis. Despite my best efforts, and an incredibly quick
remote control technique, I've still found myself starting
to offer an opinion on one of them at a dinner party before
pulling up short. "Wait a second," my brain starts
to shout, "I don't even care about this story -- why
do I know so much about it!?"
But it's worth a try. And until the Blog High Court gets
a better enforcement mechanism, we, as viewers, will just
have to practice jury nullification. |
